Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image capturing apparatus, an image processing method and a storage medium, and particularly to an image cropping technique.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a specific object, such as a person, is detected from an image not only by using image capturing apparatuses such as digital cameras, but also by using image management applications and the like. Japanese Patent No. 4625356 discloses a technique to crop an image in accordance with a specific object that has been detected.
According to this Japanese Patent No. 4625356, a crop position is determined such that one object is located at a predetermined position in a cropped image. However, using the method disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 4625356 for an image including a plurality of objects may result in execution of the following undesired cropping.
For example, assume the case where preferred framing of a cropped image is set such that an object exists on straight lines that trisect the cropped image in the horizontal direction. In the case where only one person (object) 1201 exists in an image 1200 as shown in FIG. 16A, a resultant cropped image 1202 matches the set preferred framing. On the other hand, assume the case where two people exist in an image 1210 as shown in FIG. 16B. In this case, if the image is cropped so as to incorporate a person 1211 into the preferred framing, a part of a person 1212 may not be incorporated into the preferred framing as shown in a resultant cropped image 1213.
Meanwhile, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-19893 discloses a technique to set a plurality of crop regions for an image in accordance with predetermined conditions that have been preset, and to generate a plurality of crop images from this image based on the set crop regions.
However, if crop images are generated in accordance with a plurality of crop regions that have been set as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-19893, a plurality of similar crop images may be generated.